Rice, who captured the recently concluded Aqueduct winter meet training title with 23 wins, won with all five of her starters on Thursday's program, while Lezcano won with five-of-six mounts. Three of the Rice-Lezcano scores came for owner Winning Move Stable.

Rice, who won a record-equaling 164 races on the NYRA circuit last year, was pleased to kick off the Aqueduct spring meet in style.

“I've had a few four-win days, a lot of three-win days, but not five in one day. It is pretty exciting,” Rice said. “The races went for me. Did I think we'd win five? No, not necessarily, but I knew we would have a good day.”

The quintet of scores kicked off in Race 2 as Winning Move Stable's Solib (American Pharoah) romped to victory in a seven-furlong claiming sprint for older New York-bred fillies and mares. The success continued in Race 4 as the Rice-owned Screaming Uncle (Bolt d'Oro) prevailed in a claiming sprint for 3-year-olds and upward.

Winning Move Stable would sweep Race 6 and Race 7 as New York-bred Cinderella's Cause (Congrats) won a one-turn mile claimer against open company older fillies and mares one race before graded stakes-winner Joey Freshwater (Jimmy Creed) ran off to an impressive score in an allowance optional-claiming tilt for older horses.

“I'll tell you Joey Freshwater ran a superb race. He really stepped up. It was a tough race and he really ran great,” said Rice of last year's GIII Bay Shore winner. “Joey Freshwater's race was pretty tough, a three-other-than in New York is always tough. Frankly I was thrilled with the way he ran, and it was just a dominant performance.”

The day concluded in Race 8 as Everything's Cricket Racing's New York homebred Freedsdale (Redesdale) made a winning debut with a prominent trip in a state-bred maiden special weight for sophomores.

“This 3-year-old in the last race had been training beautifully and I thought he would run great,” Rice said. “I wasn't sure it would be a win, but I was surprised he was such a long price.”

The post Linda Rice Goes Five-For-Five on Big A Card appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Rice has now won the training title at six of the last seven NYRA meetings, along with year-end honors last year as the circuit's top trainer with a record-tying 164 wins. She also came out on top at last year's Big A winter meet with 37 wins.

“It's great,” said Rice. “Frankly, I love New York winter racing and it's a good place for my clients. They enjoy it, I enjoy it, and it's been a good winter. It's pretty surreal.”

Rice, 60, posted a record of 137-23-27-23 with $1,471,414 in earnings, good for a win rate of 16.79 percent and in-the-money rate of 53.28 percent.

Jockey Dylan Davis clinched his second Aqueduct winter meet riding title when posting 54 wins.

In all, Davis' mounts banked $2,699,061, with a win rate of 22.31 percent and in-the-money percentage of 50.41.

“I've won this title before and [it's] great to win it again,” said Davis. “My business has improved every year along with the quality of horses I'm riding.”

David Jacobson claimed his first owners' title at NYRA since capturing the 2017 Aqueduct inner track meet. The veteran owner and conditioner secured 18 wins at the meet, including four races on Closing Day.

The post Linda Rice and Dylan Davis Lead Way at Aqueduct Winter Meet appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

“It's a tough number to get to. I think about how we're starting over at one tomorrow,” said Rice, with a laugh. “It's just been an incredible year. I'm really excited and I just hope we can do something that will compare going forward. That's a high bar to set.”

With George's Vice (Unified)'s win in Sunday's second race, Rice eclipsed the previous single-season record of 164 set by trainer David Jacobsen in 2013. During 2023, the 59-year-old earned leading trainer honors at the winter [37 wins] and spring [17 wins] meets at the Big A; the Belmont Park spring/summer meet [34 wins]; and tied with Chad Brown [35 wins] to register her second title at the Saratoga Race Course summer meet.

She has also secured the title at the Aqueduct fall meet, which concluded Sunday, with the record-setting victory on closing day marking her 20th win at the meet.

In addition to Rice's record training win, she also tied with Seth Klarman's Klaravich Stables for leading owner at Aqueduct's fall meet. Each had seven wins. Klaravich Stables finished the year as NYRA's leading owner for a fifth consecutive time, completing the season with a record of 235-62-39-33 and purse earnings of $6,408,466. It was Klaravich's 25th owners' title at a NYRA meet and fifth this year.

Jockey Manny Franco won the Aqueduct fall riding title with 37 wins and earned the year's leading NYRA rider honors for the third time with 238 wins across the circuit's race meets.

Rice saddled 11 stakes winners on the NYRA circuit during 2023. Among that group was Pioneering Spirit (American Pharoah), who was haltered for $40,000 in March for owner A. Bianco Holding Limited and went on to win the Bernard Baruch S. and Knickerbocker S., and Mommasgottarun (Maclean's Music)–taken for $50,000 last December for owner Ronald P. Stewart–who won the GIII Distaff H.

“We claimed Pioneering Spirit in March in a maiden $40,000, and for him to win the Bernard Baruch, win the Knickerbocker, run in Grade Is, that was exciting,” Rice said. “Mommasgottarun we claimed in December. She won a Grade III, wins a couple of allowance races for some new clients. That was really exciting.”

Rice saddled her first winner, Contraboss, in 1987 at Garden State Park and now boasts a career record of 12,879-2409-1989-1829 for purse earnings in excess of $104 million, according to stats provided by Equibase.

The post Rice Sets NYRA Single-Season Win Record appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

“I am honored to be chosen as the next president of NYTHA,” said Bond. “It is an important time for our industry and the future of horse racing. I look forward to working with NYRA and the New York breeders to continue the great work of keeping New York racing at the top of our industry. We have the best owners, the best trainers, the best employees, and soon we will have the best facilities. I want to thank Joe Appelbaum and our past board members for all of their work and support. And I want to congratulate our new board–I look forward to working with all of you.”

Also in NYTHA election results released Wednesday, owner/directors to the board are: Tom Bellhouse, Dan Collins, Sanford Goldfarb, Dr. Jennifer White, Aron Yagoda, and alternate Andrew Aaron.

Trainer/Trainer-Owner directors are: Jena Antonucci, David Donk, David Duggan, James Ferraro, John Terranova, and alternate Linda Rice.

“I'd like to recognize everyone who put themselves out there to run for a position,” said outgoing NYTHA president Joe Appelbaum. “NYTHA's strength is in our community and the more that participate, the better. Good luck to the incoming board, they are going to need our support.”

The post Tina Bond Elected NYTHA President appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

#3 RECONCILE, by @claibornefarm War Front, paid $18.40 to win the opener at Aqueduct.

Jockey Jose Lezcano up for @LindaRiceRacing. pic.twitter.com/Ud6EKV2xMj

— TVG (@TVG) December 17, 2023

The post War Front Filly Makes Her Debut A Success In Big A Opener appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Also making her first start is Robert Evans homebred Reconcile (War Front) for trainer Linda Rice. The gray filly's dam is a half-sister to GIII Comely S. heroine Raging Sea (Curlin), while third dam GSW Welcome Surprise (Seeking the Gold) is a half-sister to Horse of the Year A.P. Indy (Seattle Slew). TJCIS PPS

8th-GP, $70K, Msw, 2yo, f, 6f, 3:33 p.m. ET.
Down in Hallandale, Whisper Hill Farm homebred Tapit's Starlet (Tapit) will make her debut. The Ralph Nicks trainee is a half-sister to GIII Lexington S. runner-up Unbridled Honor (Honor Code). A $1 million purchase by Whisper Hill at the 2011 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, dam Silvery Starlet is a half-sibling to GI Cigar Mile champ El Corredor (Mr. Greeley) and GI Haskell Invitational H. victor Roman Ruler (Fusaichi Pegasus).

Kuldeep Singh Rajput's Gandharvi Racing has Urgence (Into Mischief) set for her inaugural run. Trained by Brendan Walsh, the $575,000 Keeneland September buy is out of SP Divine Elegance (Uncle Mo), who went for $750,000 to Breeze Easy at the 2018 Fasig-Tipton Fall Mixed Sale while in foal to Tapit. Urgence's extended female family includes MGISP Standard Deviation (Curlin) and GI Kentucky Oaks victress Believe You Can (Proud Citizen). TJCIS PPS

6th-OP, $115K, Msw, 2yo, 1 1/16m, 3:50 p.m. ET.
Another homebred debuting is Ken McPeek trainee Common Defense (Karakontie {Jpn}), whose female family includes MGSW Fearless (Ghostzapper). Under third dam MGISW Aldiza (Storm Cat) we find the dams of MGISP Lone Sailor (Majestic Warrior) and GIII Peter Pan S. champ Timeline (Hard Spun). TJCIS PPS

The post Sunday’s Racing Insights: Well-Related Daughter Of Arrogate Makes The Races At Aqueduct appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

How has she done it? Those were among the question she was asked when she joined the TDN Writers' Room podcast sponsored by Keeneland. Rice was this week's Green Group Guest of the Week.

“I would say some of the things that really moved me forward in my business was the decision to stay in New York year-round,” she said. “I used to split my stable in the winter and send a division to Miami while keeping the main division here in New York. I found out over the years that it was expensive. I spent all winter trying to recover my expenses, and I didn't feel like it moved us forward in any way. So when the VLT money kicked in in New York and was added to the purses, which was about 2013, I abandoned ship on Miami. I said, 'look, we're going to try something different. We're going to stay in New York.' I'm going to consolidate my workforce. Frankly, we had a lot of work right here in New York in the winter. It's a tough job in the winter. And I needed all my best people right in front of me. So I think that is the one thing that I see on my career that was very helpful was to consolidate and consolidate in New York when the VLT money showed up.”

She also largely abandoned buying at the sales.

“I used to buy a lot of young horses, yearlings, 2-year-olds in training and I'd shop all of the auctions, which I loved to do,” Rice said. “But I became it became very frustrating to me. We would go to the auctions. We'd spend a lot of money and there were all the expenses between hotels and everything else involved. And we had to invest a lot of time. I felt frustrated when we came home and we weren't getting the horses bought that we wanted. We were buying horses that really weren't on the list of horses to take home. So you go home with nothing. So I changed it up and I said, 'Well, let's try something different.' And that's when I started claiming more horses.”

She is so New York-centric that she has won only two races outside of the NYRA tracks all year, which has put her in position to break Jacobson's record. Is that something that is important to her?

Linda Rice | Coglianese

“I really hadn't thought about it much, but a few of my friends have been prompting me lately that I need to become a little more aggressive with my entries for the next couple of weeks,” Rice said. “I think we only have about eight days of racing left. The wins have been coming kind of slow and hard the last couple of weeks. So I don't know. And I told them, 'look, no matter what, it's been a great year.' And they pooh poohed that idea. They said, 'Oh, no, oh, no, you need to dig down, dig deep, get this done.'”

Rice also scored a major victory in the courtroom during the year. The New York Gaming Commission was looking to suspend her for three years for allegedly receiving favorable treatment from the racing office that could have given her an advantage over her rivals. The courts intervened and called the three-year suspension “shockingly unfair,” which forced the Gaming Commission to drop the ban.

“It was a very trying long process to finally get there,” she said. “My family has told me, that the fact that I've been able to maintain the level that I have professionally under that type of pressure is quite amazing. But it has been a huge relief to have it finally behind me. It was very stressful, very hard on myself, my family, to watch me go through that. But we were very pleased with the appellate decision and glad to have it over.”

Also on the show the hosts discussed the Coolmore Stallion of the Week, Corniche (Quality Road), an undefeated champion two-year-old now standing at stud at Coolmore America.

Elsewhere on the podcast, which is also sponsored by the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association,https://www.kentuckybred.org/https://www.nyrabets.com/ West Point Thoroughbreds, WinStar Farm and XBTV.com, the team of Randy Moss and Bill Finley debated NYRA's decision to move the GI Belmont S. to Saratoga for 2024 and, most likely 2025. Finley was all in favor of the move and while Moss conceded that Saratoga was probably the right place to hold the race the distance should not have been shifted from 1 1/2 to a 1 1/4. Moss and Finley also discussed Pat Valenzuela's plans to begin riding again after a seven-year absence brought about by knee problems. Both agreed that he has an uphill climb in front of him.

Click for the video of the latest podcast or the audio-only version.

The post Linda Rice Joins The TDN Writers’ Room Podcast appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

“That filly, we've had a few strange things happen with her when she was young, and then she had such a nice winter. We elected to give her this summer off, because I just felt like she needed it,” Rice explained. “She came back really well and of course we wheeled her back on short rest, but once they're older and more mature, it can work out.”

Rice added the next likely target for the daughter of Liam's Map is the $150,000 Interborough S., a seven-panel sprint for fillies and mares, set to run Jan. 20.

Freshwater and Arrogance Back in the Barn

A pair of noteworthy names recently resurfaced on the work tab for the trainer including GSW Joey Freshwater (Jimmy Creed) and SW & MGSP Arctic Arrogance (Frosted). The former posted his first work since failing to hit the board in the Salvatore M DeBunda Sprint S. back in August. The GIII Bay Shore S. winner covered a half-mile over the Belmont training track in :50.40 this past Thursday.

“Joey had three months off and he looks good,” said Rice. “He's fresh. He should be ready sometime in January, not really any target yet. Maybe we'll start him in a 'two-other-than' allowance and go from there. Baby steps.”

A presence to reckon with in the spring on New York's Road to the Kentucky Derby, Arctic Arrogance has not been seen since his fourth-place effort in the GII Wood Memorial in April. He'd previously made a name for himself with three-straight runner-up efforts in the GII Remsen, the listed Jerome, and the GIII Withers S.

The grey returned to the tab Sunday with a half-mile breeze in :52.60, but Rice admits it's going to be a slow process to her him back to the races.

“The breeze was good. He's on the fat side and was always hard to get weight off of, so he's heavy right now. It will take us a little while. We've just got to get him going.”

The post Linda Rice Looks Forward with Hot Fudge, Returning Stakes Horses appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

The candidates are as follows: Tina Marie Bond (President), Chad Summers (President), Andrew Aaron (Owner/Director), Tom Bellhouse (Owner/Director), Kevin Brady (Owner/Director), Daniel Collins (Owner/Director), Matthew Cutair (Owner/Director), Sanford Goldfarb (Owner/Director), Michael Iannaconi (Owner/Director), Patrick Lewis (Owner/Director), Steven Rocco (Owner/Director), Vincent Vivolo, Jr. (Owner/Director), Dr. Jennifer White (Owner/Director), Aron Yagoda (Owner/Director), Jena Antonucci (Trainer), Amira Chichakly (Trainer), David Donk (Trainer), David Duggan (Trainer), Robert Falcone, Jr.(Trainer), James Ferraro (Trainer), Leah Gyarmati (Trainer), Linda Rice (Trainer) and John Terranova (Trainer).

The ballots for the NYTHA election were mailed Nov. 10 and voting for the NYTHA Election will take place, in person or by proxy, at the NYTHA Annual Meeting, to be held Dec. 27.

The post NYTHA Announces Candidates For 2023 Board Election appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

In 2021, the NYSGC fined Rice $50,000 and revoked her license for three years after investigating claims that Rice received favorable treatment from the New York Racing Association (NYRA) and that the racing office was releasing to her the names and past performances of horses that had already been entered in races, giving her an unfair advantage.

The NYSGC initially had alleged that Rice had paid racing officials in exchange for the information, but that bribery charge–which Rice had denied–was later dismissed by the commission.

On June 8, 2023, the New York Supreme Court Appellate Division ruled that the three-year banishment imposed by the NYSGC was “entirely unwarranted.”

But that same court also upheld the commission's determination that the “improper practices” rule had been violated, and ordered the matter back to the NYSGC to reassess the penalty “with the constraint that any reassessed penalty cannot contain a license revocation.”

At the Oct. 3 monthly meeting, NYSGC chair Brian O'Dwyer read into the record a brief explanation of Rice's revamped penalty.

As per the NYSGC's custom, the commissioners did not discuss or debate the matter in an open-public session prior to voting upon it. Their voting happened prior to the start of the meeting and O'Dwyer only reported a summary of the decision.

“The appellate division agreed with the Commission's findings that trainer Rice had blatantly broke the rules of racing by conspiring with others to choose the optimal races for her horses. The appellate division determined, however, that any revocation was unwarranted,” O'Dwyer said.

“We respectfully disagree with that decision, but are constrained by law to follow it. The original fine of $50,000 was predicated on a three-year revocation. Since that is now not extant, we have decided, on the basis of the record, [to] increase the fine to $100,000. And we therefore impose a penalty on trainer Rice of $100,000. The vote was unanimous in that regard,” O'Dwyer said.

Rice did not respond to messages requesting comment prior to deadline for this story, but her attorney, Andrew Turro, indicated to TDN in an email that Rice is ready to move on.

“I'm very, very happy that this is over for Linda and that she can now focus on what she loves and does best,” Turro wrote.

The post NYSGC Doubles Rice’s ‘Improper Practices’ Fine to $100K appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post